The Internet has proven to be an efficient and popular mechanism for the dissemination of information from content providers to content recipients. Content providers in many cases are organizations, such as businesses, governmental agencies, educational institutions, and the like, who operate Web sites in order to provide information that can be downloaded by content recipients. The content recipients are often consumers who use computers typically located in their dwellings to access the content provided by content providers. However, content recipients may also be other businesses, governmental agencies, educational institutions, and the like. In many cases, a content provider is also a content recipient.
The operators of Web sites, as well as those who create and place content (such as advertisements) for Web sites, have an interest in measuring the reach of content. Reach is typically determined by the number of unique visitors who visit a Web site. Web site operators, and those who create and place content, may then draw market relevant conclusions from the reach of their content.
Several arrangements have been proposed in order to measure reach. For example, it is known for a Web site to itself measure reach by determining the number of unique visitors who visit a Web site. However, such a measurement is localized in that it provides little information about the reach of content offered by other Web sites, such as competitive Web sites. Also, this measurement provides no information about the demographic information about the reach.
Accordingly, it has been proposed to install software meters on the computers of statistically selected panelists so that reach, and other information related to content, can be measured and extrapolated over the population as a whole, in much the same way that TV ratings are generated. According to this proposal, the software meters track operating system messages in order to detect communications of interest. When the software meters detect communications of interest, the software meters log the titles of the corresponding windows which are displayed to a computer user. However, logging titles of windows containing Internet content is not particularly useful because such titles can be very generic. For example, one such title which is popular with many content providers is simply “Home Page.” This title provides little indication of the information supplied to the content recipient.
Moreover, tagging of Internet content has been broadly suggested. However, the context in which tagging has been suggested requires widespread industry cooperation, and it is unlikely that such widespread industry cooperation is attainable.